The Dragonologist's Daughters
by TheTypist55
Summary: When Charlie leaves his family to track dragons, Fred becomes a surrogate father to his brother's four daughters. But when Charlie returns upon his wife's death, a bitter custody battle ensues between the brothers that threatens to tear the entire Weasley clan apart, and the family must ask themselves what truly makes a man a father.
1. Chapter 1

**I would like to make this a story exploring the relationship between fathers and daughters, as well as brothers, but I want to see if there is actually any interest in it before I go any further. If there is interest in the story, I will keep writing it, and it will focus on the relationships between Fred and Charlie, Fred and his nieces, and Charlie and his daughters, as well as the relationships between Fred, Charlie, and Charlie's ex-wife, and a healthy dose of Angelina Johnson as well.**

* * *

Molly Weasley may have been a great many things, but above all, she was a mother. She couldn't remember a time when she hadn't longed to have children, to nurture them and surround them with boundless love. And she loved her boys, she really did, but she had always dreamed of having a little girl. When her baby girl was born, she finally felt as though her world was complete. Of course, Molly was so happy that Ginny had Arthur; the relationship between a father and a daughter really is a thing of beauty. Perhaps that was why it hurt Molly so much that her son Charlie had accepted a position to track dragons around the world for the last five years, instead of staying home with his four daughters. Yes, she had sixteen grandchildren, but the ones she worried about the most were Adrianna, Eloise, Benita and Lita.

But Fred - oh, Fred. It had been so many years, but just thinking about his name brought back the two years she spent crying over his body at St. Mungo's, bargaining with the universe to let him come out of his coma. She, Angelina, and George visited him at least once a day until the miracle happened and Fred finally blinked his eyes slowly open. Molly felt her heart burst the same way it had the moment after Fred and George were born and they opened their eyes to the world for the first time. Finally, her baby had woken up. Of course, Fred didn't adjust well to missing two years, and there was that whole episode where he ran off for three years, ostensibly to go "find himself." That broke Molly's heart, and she didn't know where she found the strength to comfort George and Angelina as they cried, not one of them having received so much as a letter from him for those three long years. And his rage when he returned to discover that George and Angelina were engaged, hardly a surprise to anyone who had watched them grieve together for their beloved Fred for so many years.

Molly quickly wiped a tear away - no use wasting her time on those memories. Not now. Not when her other long-lost son was finally coming home. It would have been a dream come true to have her Charlie coming back to the Burrow to live with her, if only he hadn't been coming home to bury his wife. And Fred, her beloved son who had already endured so much, was bringing Charlie's daughters. This both broke Molly's heart and soothed it at the same time - that her Charlie had become such a distant father to his children and that her Fred had become no less than a second father to those very same girls, his beautiful nieces. Oh, when had family become so complicated? And who in Merlin's beard was she supposed to comfort? Charlie, mourning the loss of his ex-wife and the mother of his daughters? Or Fred, who was mourning the loss of his sister-in-law, a woman with whom he had virtually raised his four nieces? Although Violet had become so much more than that to Fred; the way those two had acted with each other, raising those girls and making each other laugh, you would have thought Fred was the man she had married, not Charlie.

Oh, get ahold of yourself, Molly, she thought as she wiped more tears from her face. Someone had just apparated into the backyard of the burrow, and she didn't want to look foolish crying alone at the kitchen table. Quickly dabbing at her eyes with her apron, she opened the front door and saw her Freddy, kneeling in front of his six-year-old niece Lita, his hands on her shoulders, as ten-year-old Benita stood behind him, her head buried in a thick book.

"Just because your dad is coming home doesn't mean I'm going anywhere," Fred told Lita gently.

"Dad's not staying anyway," Benita said matter-of-factly without looking away from her book. She reminded Molly a lot of Hermione, except much more aggressive.

"Do you want your dad to stay?" Fred asked.

"It doesn't matter to me. I want to live with you, Uncle Fred."

Molly saw the conflicting emotions play out on Fred's face - he loved his nieces like they were his own daughters, and it touched his heart that they loved him back, but how would Charlie take it? Pretending she had not heard the short conversation, she called out loudly.

"Look how big my granddaughters have gotten!"

"Grammy!" Lita ran sweetly to Molly and hugged her.

"We saw you last week, Grandma," Benita mumbled, grudgingly accepting a hug.

"I think you've grown, Benita," Molly said brightly.

"My name is Benny."

"But Benita is such a pretty name, I don't know why - "

"Mum," Fred interrupted, putting his hand on Benny's shoulder. "She likes to be called Benny."

"Oh, alright." Molly made sure to show her disapproval clearly on her face before ushering them all in for some homemade cookies. Benny had chosen the nickname four years ago, but Molly still had not given up on trying to change the girl's mind. Fred looked worriedly at the stairs.

"Charlie here yet?" he asked, trying to sound casual.

"He's always late," Benny chimed in, her head once again buried in her book.

"Your dad will be here soon, Benita," Molly said kindly. Benny immediately threw Fred an angry look.

"Mum!" He motioned to Benny to be quiet. "That's not what she likes to be called."

"Hmm." Molly pretended not to hear - Benny was a boy's name, after all, not fit for a little girl - and poured both of her granddaughters glasses of milk. A gentle, tentative knock came at the door before Charlie let himself in. She hadn't seen her second-born son in five years, and although she had never liked his long hair, her heart soared at seeing it again.

Charlie had barely made it through the door before Molly had her arms wrapped tightly around him, determined never to let go again, and great sobs began overtaking her. She repeated his name over and over again, as if it were a mantra that would keep him from ever leaving again.

When his mother finally loosened her hold on him, Charlie looked at his two youngest daughters for the first time in five years. Fred saw the uncertainty in Charlie's eyes, but he also saw the longing. The uncertainty he had expected; the longing scared him. Up until this point, Fred had been almost certain that Charlie would have no interest in raising his daughters, and that suited Fred just fine. But if Charlie decided not to return to Romania, if he decided to stay here and suddenly take on the role of the girls' father… Fred forced the thought out of his mind. He wouldn't be losing the girls, he tried to tell himself. Just sharing them.

"Are you my Daddy?" Lita asked Charlie, interrupting Fred's thoughts. Charlie looked at his daughter uncertainly.

"Yes, I am," he said. "I'm your dad, Lita. You were only a year old the last time I saw you. I've been waiting a very long time to see you again."

Everyone stood still for a moment, unsure what to say.

"Hi, Daddy," Lita chirped, easily breaking the silence as she went up to hug her father. Charlie gratefully accepted the hug, lifting his youngest daughter up into his arms so she could wrap her arms around his neck.

"Hey, little Lita. You don't know how much I've missed you."

"It's okay." Lita buried her face in his shoulder and he ruffled her hair. Fred saw the relief and happiness in Charlie's eyes; the knowledge that Benny would not be as forgiving and loving with Charlie made Fred happy, and he immediately felt guilty for feeling that way.

"Benita, could you put the book down for a second?" Charlie asked his other daughter. "I want to say hi to you."

Benita looked to her Uncle Fred in agitation, a small gesture that irritated Charlie.

"Benita, I asked you to put the book down." Charlie's voice took on a slight edge. Benny got a hard look on her face and lifted the book defiantly in front of her face, blocking Charlie's view of her. "Benita!" Lita and Molly looked at Charlie, surprised by his loud command. Fred, however, being his younger brother, was used to the tone, and Benny, being a determined young girl who hated being told what to do, did not move a muscle.

Charlie put Lita down and took a step towards Benny, but Fred got there first, gently taking the book out of Benny's hands.

"Say hi to your dad, Benny," he told her softly. "You can read in a minute."

Benny huffed loudly to show her displeasure with the order before looking up defiantly at her father. "Hello." It was a simple greeting with no emotion behind it, and everyone in the room was acutely aware of the difference between Lita's greeting for their father and Benny's. Charlie took a deep breath and tried to find a way to connect with his daughter, whom he hadn't seen in five years.

"So you go by Benny now?"

"Yes, Mr. Weasley."

"Just call me Dad."

"Uncle Fred says that if I'm not comfortable calling you that then I don't have to."

"Oh, he does, does he?" Charlie asked dryly, giving Fred a displeased look. Fred shrugged apologetically. "Well, I'm your father, and you listen to what I say, not what Uncle Fred says. Okay?"

"No," Benny said angrily, eyebrows knitted together. Molly gasped at the sheer disrespect her granddaughter had for her father, and Lita lowered her eyes sadly, knowing what happened when her sister got angry. Charlie's temper matched his daughter's, and Fred knew that there would be a shouting match in just a moment if he didn't do something.

"Girls, go pick out which bedroom you're staying in," Fred told his nieces, handing Benny her book back. "Quick, do it before your sisters and cousins get here, you don't want them taking the best rooms!"

Lita rushed to the stairs. Benny looked as though she wanted to say something, but a warning look from Fred sent her dutifully after her sister.

"Let me go get fresh sheets for the bedrooms," Molly said, excited to be having so much family over, even if it was for a sad occasion. Fred stared at the floor, his hands in his pockets, as he and Charlie waited for their mother to be out of earshot.

"Hey, uh…I'm sorry," Charlie said after a moment. "I really appreciate you taking care of the girls. Really. Thanks, Fred."

"Of course," Fred said cautiously, eyes still on the floor.

"How are they…how are they doing?"

"Lita misses her mom, but she's a sweet girl, she's adjusting well. Benny is…well, Benny's always been difficult."

"How about you?" This time, Charlie had his eyes on the ground.

"Huh?" Fred looked at his brother, wondering if Charlie really wanted to know, or if he was just asking to be polite.

"I know you cared about her." Even though he had been the one to divorce Violet, Charlie had never liked the subsequent relationship she had developed with Fred.

"I loved her," Fred said strongly, unwaveringly. He had loved her for a decade. All those years ago, after he had fled his new life and all of the people around him who had moved on for two years while he lay unknowingly in a coma, after he finally realized that he needed - wanted - to come home, he had been lost. He remembered racing up the steps to Angelina's apartment with a bouquet of roses in his hand, desperate to hold her again and tell her that he loved her, that leaving her had been the worst mistake of his life, that he was back now and this time he was never leaving, not without her. The ring he'd carefully picked out was resting safely in his jacket pocket; he would pull it out and get on one knee the moment she opened the door. Everything was going to be better, from that moment on.

And then he saw Angelina through the window, arms wrapped around his twin brother, their lips connecting passionately. George whispered something in her ear and she pulled away, laughing with her head back. As Fred took two steps backwards, he watched George gently pull Angelina's face back to his and kiss her deeply. Perhaps he should have seen this coming, having left her without so much as a letter for three years, but it had never occurred to Fred that she might move on. Especially not with George. Fred was already running down the street when he heard Angelina scream as the rock he had thrown smashed through her window.

With nowhere left to go, Fred had returned to the Burrow, surprised to find his mother holding a small three-year-old girl in her arms. Molly, overcome with emotion at her son's return, barely managed through her tears to introduce Fred to his niece, Adrianna. The toddler's mother was upstairs with Eloise, who had just been born last month.

* * *

_"Where's Charlie?" Fred asked, reeling at how much his family had changed while he'd been gone. _

_"In Romania," Molly sobbed. "He didn't…didn't want to leave his d-d-dragons." _

_"He'll stay here for one month," Arthur added, rubbing his wife's back. "Then he'll go back to Romania for three months. It's what he and Violet worked out. He'll be home again next month."_

_"So he hasn't…he hasn't met his new daughter?"_

_"It's only t-t-temporary," Molly wailed. "He s-says…he just needs a few more years…for his r-r-research…then he'll come home and take care of his kids."_

_A piercing wail came from an upper room, and Molly tried to comfort Adrianna while asking Fred to go help Violet with the new baby. Fred found a young woman sitting on the edge of a twin bed, wearing no makeup, with tears all over her face. In her arms, she held a wailing infant, seemingly unconsolable. _

_"Mind if I…?" Fred looked at Violet, a woman he did not know but who was clearly distraught, and watched as she offered him the baby. Gently taking the infant in his arms, he smelled something foul. He gagged when he opened the baby's diaper, making Violet laugh. Here was someone as lost as he was, someone who needed help. _

_That night, Fred changed his first diaper. He also fell in love with Eloise, his new niece who was not yet one month old. Once her diaper had been cleaned, Eloise looked up at his face with her big, blue eyes, gurgled, and gripped his finger in her tiny fist. For the first time in a very long time, Fred felt wanted by someone. When she finally drifted off to sleep and he placed her carefully in the crib, he turned his attention to Violet, Charlie's wife. He wondered briefly at the fact that Charlie had married at all, let alone had children, but maybe his brother had changed. Sitting next to Violet, Fred put a hand over hers and listened to her story; how she'd lost her family in the Wizarding War. How she'd fallen in love with Charlie, wanted to marry him and start a family. How Charlie had warned her from the start that he would never leave his dragons. How they'd worked out a long-distance arrangement. How much harder it was then she'd ever realized. How she still held out hope that Charlie would change his mind; that he would someday come to love his daughters more than his dragons. Fred listened to her story and hugged her gently when she began to sob as hysterically as Molly. How he had stroked her hair even as her snot and tears had stained his shirt. A divorce was inevitable, he thought. This woman would leave Charlie soon, find another man, a family man, and move on her with life. _

_But as the years passed, Fred saw that he had underestimated the power that love had over people. Charlie would be gone for three long months, leaving Violet alone with the girls, and she would come to the Burrow to get help from Molly, who was more than happy to care for her granddaughters. Fred, once again living at the Burrow, enjoyed the company of his sister-in-law and his nieces, and was always willing to lend a hand with the rambunctious girls. Violet and the girls would get into a routine, would be doing fine without Charlie, and then he'd show up for a month, and Fred would see the love in his brother's eyes. Because Charlie really did love Violet and his daughters. Just not as much as he loved his dragons. And Violet loved Charlie. Fred watched her laugh as Charlie lifted her in his arms and spun her every time he came home after ninety days away. Fred watched Violet take refuge in Charlie's strong arms, for the few months of the year she could. He was a good husband and father, when he was home. He just wasn't capable of being one year-round. He enjoyed his time with his wife and daughters, but then he needed to get back to his dragons. It was a need, not a want, Fred came to realize. Charlie belonged with the dragons. He lived with them; he only visited his real family. _

_Fred dated sporadically throughout the years, but he always found himself relieved to leave whichever woman he was seeing at the time to go back to being Uncle Fred to his nieces. Taking care of them came easily to him, and left him little time to worry and sulk about other things, such as George and Angelina's wedding, or their children, or his own lack of children. And when he made Violet laugh, which he did often, he felt a proud sense of accomplishment, and his heart warmed. He was really making a difference with Violet and the girls; was truly wanted by all of them, more so than anyone else. And he deserved them. He and Violet worked together to get through the diaper changes, the late-night feedings, the tears that the girls cried, first over bullies and then over boys; Fred was the one who took Eloise to her piano lessons; the one who watched trashy movies and ate ice cream with Adrianna for an entire night after her first breakup; the one who potty-trained Lita; the one who took Benita to the Father-Daughter Dance every May. For so many years, Fred had wished he could switch places with Charlie. After all, Fred had taken on the surrogate roles of father and husband, the roles that Charlie didn't want. Well, Fred wanted them._

_He got them. Seven years ago, when Violet told Charlie she was pregnant again, Fred got both of his wishes. After ten years of raising her daughters while her husband lived and worked in another country, Violet told Charlie that if he didn't come home and be a father, now that he would soon have four daughters, then she wanted a divorce. So Charlie gave her one. _

_That night, Fred came home from the joke shop to find Violet staring at her ring finger, her engagement and wedding rings gone. She was sad, but resigned. When she looked at Fred, he felt a longing to comfort her. _

_"I'm not sad that it's over," she said quietly, a single tear racing down her face. "I'm sad that it took this long to end it."_

_"You deserve to be with a man who wants to be a husband to you and a father to the girls," Fred told her, standing a respectful distance from his ex-sister-in-law. _

_"Uncle Fred?" A soft voice called to him from the staircase. Eloise, now seven, stood on the stairs in her nightgown. _

_"Yeah, sweetie?" Fred asked his niece. _

_"I had a bad dream. Will you check my closet for monsters?"_

_"Of course. Why don't you wait in your sister's room and I'll be up in a minute?" Eloise nodded and headed back up the stairs. _

_"I loved him. You know that, don't you?" Violet asked, her eyes fixed on the place where her daughter had just stood. Fred nodded and Violet took a deep breath before looking him in the eyes, and her next question came out in a whisper. "Did you also know that I love you more?"_

_Fred shook his head but remained silent. After a long moment, Violet let out a choked laugh, embarrassed._

_"I'm sorry," she said, turning to the stairs. "It was stupid of me to think - "_

_"Violet," Fred interrupted. "That's no good."_

_"…What?" Violet asked, turning around even as she feared what he'd say next. _

_"I said that's no good. I've been waiting for you tell me you love me for ten years, and you decide to wait to tell me until I have monster duty, so I don't even have time to say it back. You have horrible timing, woman. It's no good."_

_As Fred started to pass her on the stairs, Violet moved aside, unsure of what Fred had meant. _

_"Oh, and Violet? One more thing." Fred paused on the steps to whisper in her ear. "I love you, too." When he saw her smile, Fred kissed her deeply, something he had been waiting to do for the better part of a decade._

_"Uncle Fred!" Eloise called, waiting for her uncle to slay her monsters. Fred pulled away from Violet abruptly, a smile on his face. _

_"Horrible timing, Violet," he repeated. "Just horrible." He went into Eloise's room and Violet listened in the hall as Fred told her daughter that no monsters would get her on his watch before tucking her in and kissing her goodnight. Violet wished, not for the first time, that Fred was the girls' father. _

_That night, and every night after it, Fred fell asleep with Violet in his arms._

* * *

"So how many of the girls are yours, then?" Charlie asked bitterly.

"What?" Fred's head snapped up in alarm.

"You and Violet always said that nothing happened between you two until after I divorced her. Well, she's dead now, so you don't have to keep her secret anymore. How many of those girls are your daughters? Just Lita? Or was she cheating on me the entire time we were married? Are any of those girls mine, Fred?"

Fred shook his head, his anger threatening to boil over.

"They're all yours, Charlie. Merlin knows you don't deserve them and I wish I could say they were mine, but they aren't. None of them are. We never lied to you. She was faithful to you until the day you signed your divorce papers. After that, she was free to be with me, and you might not like it, but that's what she wanted."

"She never _wanted_ you, Fred, she _settled_ for you," Charlie muttered.

"What?"

"I know Violet. We still loved each other. You were just a placeholder. When I came home, I was going to make things right with her. She was going to take me back, and we were going to be a proper family again… we just didn't get the chance."

Fred wanted to yell at his brother; he wanted to wrestle Charlie to the ground and punch his smug face in. Instead, he took two photographs off of a shelf in the kitchen and showed them to Charlie. In one, Charlie had an arm around Violet and a far-off look in his eyes. Violet's smile didn't quite reach her eyes, and you could read the sadness on her face. Although it was a moving photograph, the couple looked like statues. In the second photograph, Fred held Violet in his arms and the photograph captured several seconds of the two doubling over laughing.

"That was never going to happen," Fred said quietly as Charlie examined the photos.

Feeling that his point was made, Fred turned toward the stairs, intent on checking up on his nieces. He turned back around when he heard a ripping sound. Back at the table, Charlie had taken the photo of Fred and Violet out of its frame and was slowly ripping it into shreds.

"CHARLIE!" Fred lunged without thinking, knocking Charlie out of his chair and onto the kitchen floor. The two wrestled mercilessly as they continued to argue.

"She left the girls to me!" Fred shouted.

"Like hell she did!" Charlie shouted back.

"In her will, she named me as the girls' guardian. I have custody!"

"I'm their father! You can't take away custody of my own kids!"

"Watch me!"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" The two brothers froze as their mother glared down at them from bottom of the stairs. Lita and Benita stood on either side of Molly, watching their father and their uncle wrestle with each other.

Molly Weasley may have been the kindest, gentlest woman in the world, but she hadn't raised six boys without learning a thing or two about taking control.

"PICK YOURSELVES UP OFF THE FLOOR!"

Her boys scrambled to do so immediately.

"In case the two of you have forgotten, there are two more girls waiting for you to pick them up at King's Cross station. Or did you forget how many daughters you have, Charlie? And how many nieces YOU have, Fred?"

"Mum - "

"DON'T EVEN START WITH ME! You may have divorced her, Charlie, but she was still my daughter-in-law, and we are burying her tomorrow. All of my children and grandchildren will be here this afternoon, and we will all be having a pleasant family meal together, and that includes you two. Tomorrow we are having a funeral for a wonderful woman that we all loved, and I expect you two to support each other like the brothers you are. After we've said goodbye to Violet, we will all sit down and have a proper conversation about who the girls will be staying with. But until then, Charles and Frederick Weasley, so help me Merlin, I will not tolerate any of this fighting. Is that understood?"

Charlie and Fred glared at each other, neither wanting to be the first to obey.

"I SAID IS THAT UNDERSTOOD?"

"Yes, Mum," the boys said simultaneously.

Charlie picked himself up off of the floor first, and offered a hand to help Fred. Fred slapped it away, getting up on his own and brushing himself off. Fred's only consolation was that if Charlie had found Benita difficult to connect with, he had no idea what he was about to encounter with his two teenage daughters.

When Molly took the girls into the coat room to find their jackets, Fred pulled Charlie aside.

"You can't raise these girls, Charlie," Fred told him.

"I'm their father. They should be with me." Charlie turned to leave.

"There's a bedtime story," Fred said.

"What?"

"Benny's bedtime story. It was the last bedtime story her mom read to her before she died. Now she can't fall asleep unless you read it to her. Which story is it?"

"...I'll ask her."

"How do you spell Adrianna? What's Lita's favorite ice cream? What's the one song that can make Eloise smile, no matter how hard she's crying?" Charlie was silent. "You can't take the girls from me, Charlie. You can't raise them. You don't _know_ them."

"They're my daughters. I have to learn, Fred."

As they prepared to depart for King's Cross station, Charlie looked at his two youngest daughters and wondered if he was really up for the challenge of raising four girls. He reassured himself that he was.

After all they, couldn't be more difficult than dragons, could they?


	2. Chapter 2

**I hope this chapter captures more of the emotions that I'm going for than the last chapter. I've included the ages of all of the Weasley grandchildren at the bottom of this chapter, because I know it gets confusing. This is about the age that they would all be in 2015. If you're interested in reading more of this, please let me know! I have a lot of ideas for this story. It was loosely inspired by the movie Gifted. I hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

Charlie's heart beat fast as he stood on the platform, waiting for the Hogwarts Express to arrive. The sudden urge to flee hit him, and he found himself looking for an escape route. Him? A single father? Raising four daughters himself? He felt the panic rising as he decided that he would run, go back with his dragons where he belonged, and leave Fred to raise the girls. If he was being honest with himself, he had never wanted kids in the first place. He had only ever wanted Violet. But Violet wanted kids, and he thought there was nothing he wouldn't do to keep her. Until she asked him to leave his dragons.

That, he would not do. Not for anyone.

He only made it three steps into his escape before his six-year-old daughter called after him.

"Daddy?"

At the sound of her small voice, Charlie looked back at Lita. She was so small, her face so open. This little girl, HIS little girl, had been so quick to open her arms to him. To trust him. As Charlie watched, dawning crept over his daughter's innocent face. She knew he was leaving. Why did this cause a pang in his heart? He studied his daughter for the first time. Lita's eyes were so wide and full of wonder, and her small face was delicately framed by her short, blonde hair. As he looked, he saw his beloved Violet in the outline of Lita's jaw; in the shape of her nose; in her questioning gray eyes.

Benita, alerted by the sound of Lita's voice, turned and glared at her father in the way that only a ten-year-old girl can. And in Benita, Charlie saw himself. It was all in her eyes - the distrust she had for humans, the anger she felt at the world for taking her mother away, the aching need to run, to be free - she wanted to be left alone to her books in the same way that Charlie had always wanted to be left alone to his dragons. Charlie had already seen the stubborn streak she inherited from him, and now, watching her on the platform, he understood that he would have to earn her trust the way he'd earn the trust of a wild dragon, one who had been hurt by humans before. Most of all, he saw a young version of himself in front of him, one that was hurting, and he couldn't find it in himself to turn and walk away.

"I'm too short to see," Lita said. "Can you pick me up, Daddy?"

"Me?" Charlie asked, unsure. Lita nodded.

Charlie tentatively stepped towards his daughter, gently putting his hands under her small armpits. When she didn't object, he raised her up and rested her weight on his left hip. It felt unnatural. Uncomfortable. But then Lita rested her head on his shoulder, and he felt a warmth spread through him. Fred, holding Benita's hand, watched warily from a few feet away. Charlie instinctively tightened his grip on his daughter, not wanting to lose her to his brother the way he already seemed to have lost Benita.

"Charlie!" George Weasley shouted as he approached his brother, immediately pulling him into a hug and clapping him on the back. "It's been too long, mate! Fred was beginning to hope you'd been eaten by a dragon!"

This drew a sharp look from Fred and caused Charlie to pull away from George immediately, anger suddenly shooting through him.

"He said that?" Charlie snapped.

"Just a joke, mate." George raised his hands defensively, glancing between his two brothers. "I guess that means you two didn't kiss and make up yet, eh?"

"No," Fred said casually. "The last person I kissed was Violet."

Charlie immediately placed Lita on the ground and lunged for his brother. Fred, while taller than his brother, was substantially less muscular, and therefore relieved that Bill and Ron managed to get in between the dueling men before any physical contact could be made.

"Cool it!" Bill ordered.

"Don't hurt him!" Benita screamed at her father.

"Bloody hell, Fred," Ron sighed. "Why would you say that? You trying to make Charlie mental?"

Fred took a deep breath. Yes, he had crossed a line. But Charlie seemed intent on taking the girls from him, and Fred couldn't resist the low blow. Charlie, meanwhile, was trying to calm Benita down.

"Benita, I didn't - "

"Don't hurt Uncle Fred," Benita repeated, hiding behind Fred's leg.

"It's fine," Fred tried to convince the girl. "It was my fault, Benny."

"He wants to take us away from you," Benny told her uncle.

Charlie, Fred, George, Bill, and Ron all opened their mouths to say something but were cut off by their younger sister.

"Who left Lita alone?" Ginny snapped at her brothers as she appeared with her daughter Lily on her left hip and Lita holding on to her right hand.

All of the men turned to see Lita watching, big tears forming in her eyes. Charlie and Fred both reached for her, but Hermione picked her up first. She rested the girl on her hip and stroked her hair.

"It's all right, Lita," she said. "Everyone's just excited the train is here. Let's go find your sisters, alright?" Hermione shot all of the men a cold look before taking off in the other direction.

The brothers all realized the Hogwarts Express had arrived and was unloading. Percy and Audrey appeared with Molly, seventeen, and Lucy, fifteen.

"Charlie," Percy greeted his brother happily. "Ready to deal with the teenagers yet?"

"Bill!" Fleur called her husband. "I found Dominique, where is Louis?"

"You know he's always last off the train," Bill called back, disappearing in the crowd as he searched for his son.

"Fred, come back!" Angelina shouted.

Fred turned immediately, his heart skipping a beat. When he realized she was only calling Fred, Jr., he turned around again, embarrassed. George and Angelina had named their son after him, in what Fred assumed was some sort of apology, or perhaps some misguided attempt to make him feel included in their family unit, but Fred had disliked sharing his name from the start. To him, Fred, Jr. felt more like a replacement than anything else.

"Dad?"

Everyone turned to see Adrianna staring at Charlie. The last time Charlie had seen his eldest daughter she had been twelve. Now she was seventeen and his breath caught when he saw her, looking like a younger version of her mother. Her brown hair was long and straight, and reminded Charlie of Violet's hair on their wedding day.

"Ardi," Charlie said, using the nickname he'd had for her since she was little. He could see that while he'd left her a young pre-teen, she had blossomed into a young woman while he'd been away.

Ardi slowly approached her father, and he opened his arms awkwardly, unsure how she would want to greet him. But she quickly embraced him in a hug, and when she finally pulled away he could see that there were tears running down her face.

"I missed you," she choked out.

"I missed you, too." Charlie wasn't sure what else to say.

"I wish Mom was here."

"…Me, too, pumpkin. Me, too."

"Fred," Hermione reappeared, Lita still on her hip, and pointed behind the group. "You've got a situation to deal with over there." Fred turned to see Eloise making out with a considerably older-looking boy and groaned.

"Eloise," Fred said, approaching his fourteen-year-old niece.

"Uncle Fred!" Eloise cried, separating from the boy to throw her arms around her uncle's neck in a grandiose show of affection. That was how Fred knew she wanted something. "Carter's family invited me to stay for the summer!"

"Well," Fred began, keeping an arm around Eloise while he looked Carter up and down. "That's very nice of them to offer, but you're spending the summer with your family at the Burrow."

"But, Uncle Fred - "

"Eloise?" Charlie asked, appearing with Ardi, who wiped away her tears as she saw that her sister was preparing for an outburst.

"Daddy!" Eloise cried, giving him the same greeting she had given Fred. "Can I go with Carter for the summer? Please?"

"Eloise - "

"Uncle Fred said no, but I knew you'd say yes, because you love me and I want to go more than I want anything in the entire world and - "

"No," Charlie said gently, trying to calm his daughter down.

"Please?"

"Eloise," Fred warned.

"Please, please, please, please, PLEASE?" Eloise begged her father theatrically.

"No," Charlie said firmly.

"But, Dad! I love him! He's my soul mate and I don't want to spend the summer in Grandma's crusty old house with all of the brat cousins, I want to be with Carter, he's the love of my life, you don't understand and - "

"Eloise, I said no."

Eloise was the only daughter to inherit Charlie's fire-red hair, but he had no idea where she'd inherited her flair for drama, and he was wholly unprepared for her over-the-top personality, having last seen her when she was only nine years old and still a cute child.

"I HATE you!" Eloise screamed. "This is gonna be the worst summer ever! Why are you ruining my life?!"

"What in the bloody hell?" Charlie turned Fred, who gave him an I-told-you-so look. "Eloise, we're leaving!" Charlie grabbed his daughter's arm and began dragging her away from her so-called soul mate.

"I don't want to go with you!"

"You don't have a choice!"

"I wish you'd never even come back! I wish Uncle Fred was my father! I HATE YOU!"

Charlie felt as though a knife had pierced through his heart. He had flashes of giving Eloise piggy-back rides as a child; of showing her how to ride her first broomstick while she was just a little girl in pigtails; of her crying hysterically the day he left five years ago, begging him not to go. Now he looked at his daughter, who had just said she wished he wasn't her father, and he felt his heart break. Like Benny, it seemed he had lost Eloise as well.

As his second daughter railed against him, hurling hurtful words as she simultaneously begged him to let her go, Charlie thought for the second time that day that he could not do this. He could not raise these girls. He had only been with Eloise for five minutes and he already wanted a break from her. He was not cut out to be a father, he never had been, and Eloise was evidence of how he had already failed his children miserably.

Charlie wondered if some men just weren't supposed to be fathers.

* * *

In the end, Charlie had to drag Eloise into the Burrow kicking and screaming. They were the last two in the door, and Charlie was acutely aware of everyone in his family staring at them as they entered. He slammed the door shut and locked it behind his daughter, who stood in front of him, fuming.

"This is the part where you send her to her room," George whispered loudly to Charlie.

"Go to your room," Charlie ordered half-heartedly. Eloise didn't move. "I said, go to your room right now, young lady!" Eloise flinched at the anger in her father's voice.

"You don't get to tell me what to do!" Eloise screamed. "You're not my father! You left us!"

Charlie stood silently, stunned. Of all the things he had expected to hear, this had not been one of them.

"Mum was glad you were gone," Eloise continued. "She loved Uncle Fred. We all do. No one needs you here. So just go back to your dragons."

Adrianna, Benita, and Lita watched their sister rage at their father, but said nothing. All of the cousins and adults in the room were silent, no one sure of what to say. Fred finally stood up from a kitchen chair and pulled Eloise into a tight hug. She began sobbing into his chest.

"I want Mum back," she cried.

"I know," he told her softly. "Me, too."

Molly ushered her other children and grandchildren out of the kitchen, shepherding them onto the front lawn to give Eloise some privacy to grieve. Charlie took Adrianna, Benny, and Lita outside as well, hating to let Fred be the one to comfort his daughter but knowing that he could do nothing about it.

"Do you remember the night she died?" Eloise sniffled after the door had shut behind the last of her family.

"It was the worst night of my life," Fred told his niece.

Charlie was angry at Fred, yes, but that anger was eclipsed by the hurt he felt. His own daughter had chosen his brother over him. She'd told him that she hated him. That she wished he wasn't her father. As he stood outside, waiting for Fred and Eloise to come out of the kitchen, Charlie felt the enormity of all that he'd lost for the first time. Violet may have been his ex-wife, but she would always be the love of his life. Just because he'd loved his dragons more than he'd loved Violet didn't mean that he hadn't loved Violet. She had been a close second. But Charlie felt that he never truly knew what Violet meant to him until this moment, when he was faced with the reality of what his life was going to be like without her. She had died six months ago, and he'd gotten an owl right away. He couldn't leave his assignment, though, not then. He was so close to finishing it. So he'd told his family to put the funeral on hold until he could return. And he'd also put his feelings on hold. Now, staring at his girls, he finally allowed himself to grieve their mother. He felt an aching hole in his chest that he knew would never be filled again. More than that, he felt terror at losing his four girls, the last remnants of the love he had with Violet. This was what drove him to kick Fred out. This - the hurt, the fear - not the anger. So when Fred finally walked outside with Eloise, Charlie had made up his mind.

"You need to leave," Charlie said.

"What?" Fred asked.

"You need to leave, Fred. Now."

"…Charlie…"

Everyone stared at Charlie. It wasn't his house, who was he to make the rules? And yet, no one intervened. They had never seen Charlie so emotional before. He looked as though he was so full of hurt and rage that he might die from the pain of it all.

"I don't want you around my girls," Charlie continued. "Get out, Fred. Go!"

And Fred, who loved his nieces more than anything, felt that he had no choice. Not at the moment. Fred would fight this, but it was a fight to save for after the funeral. Not today. Not in front of the girls. He turned and walked away, preparing to apparate back to the joke shop.

"Uncle Fred!" Benny cried, racing after him. "Uncle Fred, don't leave me!"

Fred turned around and bent down. On his knees, he hugged Benny.

"I have to go," he told her. "But just for a little while. I promise."

"No!" Benny screamed. "NO!"

"I love you girls. Don't forget that." Fred pulled back from the hug. Benny began sobbing, punching Fred's chest with her weak little fists.

"Uncle Fred, no! Don't leave me! Take me with you!"

Now Fred's eyes filled with tears as he accepted the harmless blows his niece inflicted upon him.

"George," Fred croaked. So George, feeling his twin's pain, pulled Benny towards him and away from Fred.

"NOOO!" Benny raged through her tears.

Fred, tears in his eyes, looked to Charlie one last time. But Charlie was so blinded by his own pain that he couldn't see his daughter's for the moment.

"Go," he commanded.

Fred stood up, wiped his eyes, and apparated away from the Burrow. As he apparated into the shop, he could still hear the plaintive wail of his niece, and he thought his heart might break from listening.

"Uncle Fred! NOOO!"

* * *

_Charlie and Violet:_

_Adrianna (Ardi), 17_

_Eloise (Lou), 14_

_Benita (Benny), 10_

_Lita, 6_

_Hermione and Ron:_

_Rose, 9_

_Hugo, 7_

_Harry and Ginny:_

_James Sirius, 10_

_Albus Severus, 9_

_Lily Luna, 6_

_Percy and Audrey:_

_Molly, 17_

_Lucy, 15_

_Bill and Fleur:_

_Victoire, 19_

_Dominique, 16_

_Louis, 14_

_George and Angelina Johnson:_

_Roxanne, 11_

_Fred Jr., 8_


	3. Chapter 3

**So it's been a few months, but I've always wanted to come back to this story. I know the wizarding courts are never really explored in the books, so I hope no one minds, but I just named the lower courts the High Council. Things start to get controversial in the family in this chapter, and I hope you like it. If anyone has the time, I'd really appreciate it if you let me know what you think of this story. From now on the story will explore how the custody battle tears the Weasley clan into two conflicting sides, and I'd like to explore each adult's opinion on the matter (Harry, Hermione, Ron, Bill, Fleur, Ginny, etc.). It will also detail Charlie's challenges of trying to reconnect with his daughters, and Fred's own feelings for his nieces and his brother. Thanks for reading!**

* * *

"Charlie, dear!" Molly Weasley called to her second eldest son from the kitchen. "The girls' laundry is done!"

Charlie entered the kitchen to find his mother waving her wand amid a vast pile of laundry. Her wand directed some pieces of laundry to wash themselves against the washboard, others to fly outside to hang dry, and even more to fold themselves before being deposited lightly in assorted baskets.

"What?" Charlie asked, confused. He had never done laundry for anyone but himself.

"I clean all the laundry every year when the grandkids get back from Hogwarts. I've finished Ardi, Eloise, Benita, and Lita's. There, in the corner."

Charlie found four baskets of neatly folded laundry in the corner, but continued to stare at his mother in confusion.

"What do I do?"

"Bring it up to the girls," Molly sighed in exasperation.

"Thanks, Mum." Charlie kissed his mother on the cheek before levitating the four baskets in front of him. Upon arriving at the room that Benita and Lita shared, he peered into the four baskets. He found the two with the smallest clothes and knocked on his daughters' door.

"Benny, Lita! Laundry!"

The door flew open and Lita immediately hugged her father. Benny stood with her arms crossed and glared at her father.

"When is Uncle Fred coming back?"

Charlie sighed.

"Benny, Uncle Fred doesn't need to be here right now."

Benny immediately turned on her heel and stormed back into the room to read a book. Charlie shook his head before heading further up the stairs to the room that Ardi shared with Molly and Victoire. He deposited the two remaining laundry baskets on the floor and tried to determine which belonged to Ardie and which to Eloise.

That was when he found the thong.

His hand jerked back as though it had been burned. A THONG? Ardi was only seventeen - do girls that age really wear thongs already? Not for the first time, Charlie wondered if he had gotten in over his head, trying to take care of four girls by himself. He took a deep breath before knocking on the door.

"Hi, Uncle Charlie," Victoire said.

"Hi, Victoria. Is Adrianna here?"

"Um, it's Victoire, actually."

"Right, sorry."

"Hey, Dad," Ardi said, coming to the door.

"Adrianna, we need to talk about something." Charlie felt his face heating up as he held the thong gingerly between his fingers.

"That's not mine," Ardi said, crinkling her nose in disgust.

"Then whose is it?"

"Take a guess, Dad." Ardi raised her eyebrows and looked pointedly at her sister Eloise, who was on her way down the stairs.

"EW, DAD, WHY ARE YOU TOUCHING MY UNDERWEAR?!" Eloise shrieked.

Charlie felt his anger rising as he stared at his fourteen-year-old daughter.

"Eloise, you're _fourteen_. You're not allowed to wear thongs!"

"How would _you_ know what I'm allowed to do? I haven't seen you in _five years_!"

"What would your mother say?"

Eloise froze, and her next words came out icily.

"Don't you ever talk about Mom. You abandoned her, and us. You have no idea what she would say to me."

With that, Eloise snatched the thong from her father's hand and stormed back upstairs. Charlie stood rooted to the spot until George opened the door across from Ardi's.

"Having a little trouble with that one, eh?" George asked his brother, pointing his thumb up the stairs. Ardi tactfully shut her own door, and Charlie entered George and Angelina's room in search of a little privacy.

"I don't remember the girls ever being this hard," Charlie confided in his brother.

"Well, you never had to deal with them as teenagers, did you? I'm not looking forward to Roxanne reaching that age."

"It's not just their ages. Benny and Eloise are so…_mad_ at me."

"Well, can you blame them?"

"My career offered me the opportunity of a lifetime. How was I supposed to pass that up?"

"Look, mate…and I'm not just saying this because he's my twin…Fred is really good with the girls. Maybe you should ask him to come back?"

"He stole my wife, George, and now he wants to steal my daughters."

"I really don't think it's like that."

"Well, you would know, wouldn't you? After all, you stole _his_ girlfriend."

George's face burned, but before he could defend himself, Arthur shouted up the stairs.

"Charlie! You need to come down here right now!"

Charlie mildly wondered if he had pushed George too far, but the urgency in his father's voice stopped him from caring. He trotted down the stairs, George close on his heels. Evidently, George wasn't done talking to him.

"Charles Weasley?" A professional-looking young man stood at the front door to the Burrow, a sheaf of papers in hand.

"Yes," Charlie responded apprehensively.

"I'm from the High Council. The judge has rendered a decision in your custody hearing."

"What custody hearing?"

"The custody hearing of Frederick Weasley versus Charles Weasley. It's all in the papers." The young man handed Charlie a thin piece of paper. "I also have subpoenas here for Arthur Weasley, Molly Weasley, Hermione Weasley, Ronald Weasley, Percy Weasley, Audrey Weasley, Bill Weasley, Fleur Weasley, George Weasley, Angelina Weasley, Harry Potter and Ginevra Potter."

"_What_?" Charlie asked, utterly confused.

"It's all in the papers," the young man repeated, carefully handing Charlie the large stack of parchment before apparating with a loud pop.

Arthur took the stack of parchment from Charlie and read it as the rest of the family gathered in the kitchen.

"What's going on?" Charlie asked his father.

"Fred is suing you for custody of the girls," his father said sadly, placing the sheaf of parchment on the kitchen table. "It looks like the judge has ordered shared custody between you and Fred for one month before the trial. Then everyone in the family will be called as witnesses to testify."

"Testify to what?"

"…To who we think the best guardian for the girls is."

At that, a loud discussion erupted between the thirteen adults in the room.

"That's ridiculous," Molly Weasley interjected. "Children should be with their father!"

"Fred's more of a father to those girls than Charlie ever was," George declared loudly.

"Well, that's not fair," Bill countered. "It's not Charlie's fault his work took him away from his family."

"It's not as though he didn't have a choice," Ginny argued back.

"Why do we have to testify?" Ron asked, shouting to be heard above everyone else.

"Because the judge thinks the rest of you are in the best position to decide what's best for the girls," Fred answered. The rest of the family quieted, realizing he must have apparated into the kitchen while they were all shouting.

"Fred, how could you?!" Charlie lunged at his brother, but Bill held him back.

"I'm trying to take care of the girls. Someone has to!"

At that, everyone in the room began shouting at each other. Everyone in the family had an opinion on the issue, and things began to get heated. Some couples took the same side - others were split. And so the first of many cracks began to appear in the family's unity.

"_ENOUGH!_" Molly Weasley shouted, well versed at being louder than her children. Everyone immediately quieted down. "In case everyone's forgotten, we are burying Violet today. Charlie and Fred, no matter what happened between you three, she was a member of this family. And there are four girls upstairs who have to say goodbye to their mother today. So everyone START BEHAVING YOURSELVES!"

* * *

Charlie held his youngest daughter in his arms as Violet's coffin was lowered into the ground. His oldest daughter stood beside him in a show of solidarity. His two middle daughters were noticeably absent from his side.

Eloise stood next to her Uncle Fred, their matching red hair shining in the sun's rays. It was Benita who stood by herself, far away from the crowd. She had refused all efforts to comfort her.

But regardless of where they stood, all four of the girls cried. Charlie was stoic; he had never been one for tears. Fred managed to keep his eyes dry as well, but the redness around them clearly showed that he was struggling.

The entire Weasley family gathered at the Burrow after the funeral, and Molly kept herself busy feeding the crowd. Charlie wandered through the kitchen and the living room, weaving himself away from conversations that he might be drawn into.

"Come and sit down with me, son?" Arthur asked Charlie gently. Glancing around, Charlie saw no way to politely excuse himself, and so he sat on an overstuffed chair in a quiet corner next to his father.

"Wonderful woman, your wife was." Charlie nodded absently as his father spoke, not bothering to correct him and say that Violet was actually his ex-wife. "A heart attack at that age…it just doesn't seem fair, does it?"

Charlie was silent, having nothing to add.

"It's a tough time for the girls right now," Arthur continued. "And I want to make sure that you don't get so caught up in this fight with Fred that you…well, that you forget what you're fighting for."

"Dad…who are you going to choose? When the trial starts?"

"Charlie…Fred has been very good to your girls. No matter what happens, I hope you never forget that. But I think…well, I'll have to see how you are with them over the next month, son. I can't pick…it's not about what I want, Charlie. It's about what's best for my granddaughters."

Charlie nodded and closed his eyes. He had a long journey ahead of him. Losing Violet had made him realize how precious life was, and he didn't want to lose anymore time with his daughters.

Outside, on the Burrow's back porch, George approached his twin brother, who was silently drinking a Butterbeer as he sat on the edge of the porch.

"Fred," George said, clearing his throat. Fred looked up at him. George took a seat next to his brother. "I want you to know that when the judge asks me what I think is best for the girls…I'm gonna say they should stay with you."

Fred closed his eyes and bowed his head, feeling as though a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. Then an errant thought began nagging at him.

"You're not just saying that because you feel bad about stealing my girlfriend, right?"

George shook his head sadly. "For what it's worth, Fred, I never meant to take Angelina away from you. We didn't know when you were coming back. If you were coming back. And it just…happened. You're not still mad about it, are you?"

"I'm not mad." Fred spoke quietly, staring directly into George's eyes. "I'm furious. But not at you. At myself. I was mad at you and Angelina for such a long time, but then…when Charlie left, and I saw what that did to Violet…now I'm furious at myself for doing that to Angelina. But you, George? I'm not mad at you. I love Angelina - I always will. But I can see now that when I hurt her, you took care of her. And I'm just glad that you make her happy."

George rubbed his eyes, determined not to get emotional. He had waited eleven years to hear those words from his twin brother.

"I love you, Fred," he mumbled.

"I love you, too, George." Fred took a long swig from his Butterbeer and looked out at the late afternoon sun. "…Do you think I'm doing the right thing? Taking this to court?"

George thought for a long moment before answering. "I do. I love Charlie, but…I think he underestimated how hard this would be. I'm not even sure if he wants this anymore. And to be honest, I just don't know if he can do this. But you, Fred, you're good with the girls. I mean, _really_ good with them. I think they need you."

"Thanks, George."

George nodded and put his hand on his brother's shoulder, and the twins sat together in silence.


End file.
